Souled American is band from Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1983 by ChrisGrigoroff(guitarand vocals)and JoeAducci(bass). The band was later expanded with ScottTuma(guitar) andJameyBarnard(drums). SouledAmerican isas far I know notformally disbanded, butTumaandBarnardleft the bandduringthe earlyandmid-1990s and GrigoroffandAduccihave continued on their own. By nowit should beabundantly clearthat “gothic country” consists of mixes of styles, overlaps and have branches and twigs. A variant is ”lo-fi”. Within “lo-fi”one strives after authenticityratherthanoverproduction. It’s sometimes called "Melan Country" or "Country 'n'Strychnine”. The most well-knownbandsin the genre are LambchopandCowboy Junkies. They are however not included in this article series. One of the pioneering bands in ”lo-fi” was Souled American.

Souled American has released six albums. The four first albums: Fe (1988), Flubber (1989), Around the Horn (1990) and Sonny (1992) on Rough Trade (!). However, things went in the wrong direction.The album sales graduallydiminished for the band. Even musically things wentin the wrong direction. Idon’t know ifone can speak ofmusicaldevelopment in conjunction with SouledAmerican. Moreaccurateis to say that theydrewtheir conceptto an extreme (and perhaps evenslightly longerthan that). The band’s concept was dreamyandwhimsicalharmonies, Fender VIsix-stringed bass, “plink and plonk” sounding guitars andpeculiar vocals, and over time, inincreasinglydistinctiveshapes. Souled American returned in 1994 with the album Frozen followed by Notes Campfire (1997) on the German record company Moll Enträger. The album Fe is theirmost accessible album,whilethe last album, NotesCampfire, is their mostfuzzyand introvert album.Since 2007 an album project is a work in progress. I have a re-release of the four first albums from UproarRecords packaged in stylish box. I bought it from Aquarius in San Francisco. However, it’s the original album covers that are shown below.

A caveat is in place. One really hasto be in theright mood to get througha compilation withSouledAmerican. Below is a suggestion for a CD compilation

No

Song

Album

1

Notes Campfire

Fe

2

Make Me Laugh Make Me Cry

Fe

3

She Broke My Heart

Fe

4

Wind To Dry

Flubber

5

You And You Alone

Flubber

6

Over The Hill

Flubber

7

Zillion

Flubber

8

Second Of All

Around The Horn

9

Old Old House

Around The Horn

10

In The Mud

Around The Horn

11

Dark As The Dungeon

Sonny

12

Not Over

Sonny

13

Frozen

Frozen

14

Downblossom

Frozen

15

Heyman

Frozen

16

Before Tonight

Notes Campfire

17

Set In

Notes Campfire

18

Deal

Notes Campfire

Best album: Fe or Frozen (can't decide)

Best songs: Make Me Laugh Make Me Cry, She Broke My Heart, Second Of All, Frozen, Deal